Modern network filters, e.g., routers and server firewalls, are typically configured to block content based on static characteristics. Filtering may be based on a specific web page, e.g., URL filtering, or a specific type of content, e.g., keyword detection/filtering. Generally, this type of filtering is effective where providers produce content and published it, in a static format, to the Internet.
Modern web pages, e.g., Web 2.0, are generally constructed using page templates, e.g., Ruby on Rails, which are filled dynamically with content from a database. Each section of the template identifies the type of contact to populate the page. At run-time, a server-side scripting language, e.g., APS, PHP, makes the content request per section from a database, e.g., Oracle™, and MySQL™, and then populates the page. FIG. 1A depicts a run-time population of a web page 110 from a data store 120 having a content database where regions, e.g., content_1 111, content_2 112, and content_3 113, are drawn from the database and placed into the web page 110. Thus, as shown in the FIG. 1A prior art depiction, content is not tied to a specific web page. Instead, content is independent of the one or more web pages and may be fed into different pages, different locations, or different content may be selected for a fixed location on a web page based on a dynamic condition. Thus, using traditional access controls for limiting access to either a web site or a web page do not provide adequate means to selectively control access on a content basis.
Dynamic web page content may be drawn from multiple sources, and the dynamic web page itself may not be coupled to a specific Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Surfing by navigating web pages is changing to surfing by requesting. A request is fulfilled by dynamically obtaining relevant information from a database and constructing a structured view of the data by combining the data with a template responsive to the request. For example, on many modern major Web 2.0 sites, when the user surfs the sites, the user may note that the URL in the address bar never changes. That is, the users are in effect no longer searching web pages and instead are invoking requests.
The content served by the MFP device via web requests may include both static framed web pages with some variable data and dynamically constructed instances of content (e.g., content management system, like Joomla!™ and Drupal™). The frequency of dynamically constructed instances increases with the increase in MFP devices having functionality consistent with Web 2.0 features. Filtering based on a specific URL address may prove impractical when the web pages are dynamically constructed. The absence of a predetermined set of content, sufficiently static to define for filter rules and limitations may be attributed to the content being dynamically constructed from both the user and operator, and its form of presentation, i.e., its rendering, may not be predicted.
FIG. 1B depicts a top level process block diagram where micro-formats support the tagging of selected areas/regions of a web page as an informational canvas that is independent of the rendering of the web page and in doing so may be responsive to a request. In FIG. 1B, a micro-format reader 115 may read the micro-formats of a plurality of informational canvases 125, e.g., canvas_1 121 and canvas_2 122, each having been micro-tagged, and identifying canvas_1 via its micro-tag 130. Typically, the micro-format syntax uses the same syntax as the native format, e.g., hypertext markup language (HTML), but is ignored by the rendering engine of the browser. Instead, plug-ins can be added to web browsers to separately parse and perform an action when micro-formats are present. Additionally, web scrapping applications can be written to also take advantage of micro-formats that may be embedded in a web page.